Shite in Miniature II

[flat4alfa]

17 hours ago, Jon said:

Can't quite make out what the green car is that's about to crash onto the table top but the other looks like a Superfast Europa, missing a door. I don't think either features on the front cover, so nice to see they had some (hopefully) lower grade stooges on hand for the stunt work.

Hmm

Matchbox ISO Grifo I think?

[bunglebus]

Hot Wheels Alfa has a hidden secret

[flat4alfa]

An inverted Busso !

What... why?

[bunglebus]

I don't know Alfa engines at all but it's supposed to be this..?

[flat4alfa]

Yes exactly that.

Someone put some effort in.

[flat4alfa]

And they sound like this 

 

[Bren]

1 hour ago, flat4alfa said:

And they sound like this 

 

From the outside the sound reminds me of an essex V6.

[flat4alfa]

13 hours ago, Bren said:

From the outside the sound reminds me of an essex V6.

Same 1-4-2-5-3-6 firing order, 60 degrees V

But quite a bit more sophisticated, having Bosch L-Jetronic and SOHC per bank.  Rev to 6500 in factory form and known for smoothness getting there.  Autodelta cams took to 7500, keeping warranty intact if agreed by dealer

There was a Busso 12v in my Alfa 6

But mated to a ZF Badermatic, because Alfashite.

[bunglebus]

As I was freeing up the Alfa to steal its wheels, I took some others out of their blisters too, all destined for customising or at least detailing

[bunglebus]

Oh and I took the Man From U.N.C.L.E Olds apart... 

Very glad I took this pic so I could refer to it for reassembly 

the periscope is riveted to the interior piece so it can't be pulled out - luckily there's enough wiggle room to get the old broken (plastic) spotlights out and the donor metal ones back in

All works correctly thankfully 

[flat4alfa]

Well I have one back here where that rivet let go!  Because it is missing…

Annoyingly, it is the best condition of the three examples here.  Arse.

 

[bunglebus]

Just now, flat4alfa said:

Well I have one back here where that rivet let go!  Because it is missing…

Annoyingly, it is the best condition of the three examples here.  Arse.

 

Do you need a spare periscope?

[flat4alfa]

Not really as the two other were picked up as donors to fix the problem!  Like everything, not got around to it.

[bunglebus]

Well the donor here is fairly dead, broken pillar and glass plus someone's taken the spotlights off...

[flat4alfa]

2 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

Do you need a spare periscope?

Saying that, as you are doing a BungleResurectionTM… it would be useful trying to try and umm glue it home rather than take apart, because tidy

[flat4alfa]

6 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

Well the donor here is fairly dead, broken pillar and glass plus someone's taken the spotlights off...

Later spotlights were plastic, they just broke away

[Datsuncog]

[Split_Pin]

Hopefully that's just the recent high winds that have damaged the stems of those leaves and knocked them off. 

[sierraman]

9 hours ago, flat4alfa said:

Same 1-4-2-5-3-6 firing order, 60 degrees V

But quite a bit more sophisticated, having Bosch L-Jetronic and SOHC per bank.  Rev to 6500 in factory form and known for smoothness getting there.  Autodelta cams took to 7500, keeping warranty intact if agreed by dealer

There was a Busso 12v in my Alfa 6

 

But mated to a ZF Badermatic, because Alfashite.

That is glorious. I think they’re down to single figures? They were hideously rare even 20 odd years ago. 

[bunglebus]

9 hours ago, flat4alfa said:

Saying that, as you are doing a BungleResurectionTM… it would be useful trying to try and umm glue it home rather than take apart, because tidy

When I said it's riveted, really the end is peened over so it won't pull up through the interior, it sits on the sprung metal plate and is free to move up and down. You can put the donor one in without taking the car apart, it'll just be free to pull out again

[Datsuncog]

So, Friday once more... bit of a chill in the morning air necessitating a jacket, and leaves on the ground even though I swept up last night. Funny old July... feels like we've accelerated two months ahead.

But! At least I was market-bound, unlike last week's agony of frustration...

The main Tat Stall was quite crowded with giffers on arrival, but there wasn't much in the way of diecast to be seen.

Impressive home-made looking crane truck, though.

Must have been nearly three feet long. I seem to remember home DIY magazines in the 1980s having project plans at the back for this sort of thing?

Seems to be mostly plywood. I'd have loved this when I was four or five.

Eventually, further boxes appeared... 

And, after a spot of tidying, this was pretty much the selection for this week:

As well as the Corgi Classics and Atlas, our old painty chums were back:

Yup, it's The Gay Devil, returning for another week. 

Plus the Estashonk and the Budgie wrecker.

It appears that not very much has sold since last we looked.

I'm shocked, shocked I say.

Plenty of big Classics buses and trolleys from the mid-90s, which I got very excited about on release but now can't quite remember why.

And more beneath, though trams and Thorneycroft omnibuses ain't quite my thing.

The Nemesis was already at the stall by the time I arrived, though his attention was focused on these recent Corgis rather than the older stuff.

Still wearing their original £36.99 price stickers, these VW T1s were being bucked out for a tenner each.

Nemesis picked up a few, plus another commemorative Mini.

I pity the hapless diecast collector who saw one of these, and thought their significant other might like it as an anniversary gift.

Maybe that's why these are all up for sale, hey?

[Datsuncog]

My usual quick sweep around the other antique stalls seldom yields much, but Pugilistic Paddy happened to have these for a change:

Well knock me down with a feather.

Prices were, it has to be said, reassuringly expensive:

That's £15 on the Dinky Bedford CA in Ovaltine livery, £20 each on the grand Prix racers, £25 on the grey flatbed, £35 on the Coles crane, and £50 on the big Lesney K-8 Laing Prime Mover and trailer.

I'm not sure how much the Karrier outside broadcast van was, or the single non-trailer K-8, or indeed the big Corgi 'Skyscraper' Hong Kong-made tower crane, as there's signs everywhere saying DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING!! - and I didn't much fancy a brawl before breakfast.

So I kept my paws off.

Yes, that is him with the chins.

[sierraman]

Have you introduced the concept of being able to view EBay sold prices to them. It generally would be my first port of call to ascertain actual sold prices. 😂

[Split_Pin]

I had one of those 1/50 single deck buses in the late 1990s in Dundee Corporation livery, plus a few Atlanteans and a Guy Arab double decker.  They were very sterile, chunky things which is why I settled on 1/76 for buses as they actually had more detail and took up less space. The poseable front wheels were a nice touch on later models though

The only exception was the Routemaster which although equally chunky, was quite charming. I had one in a Scottish Stagecoach livery but ultimately I sold it as I already had 2 1/24 Sunstar examples which were more worthy of the increased shelf footprint and an EFE 1/76 scale example as well.

[Split_Pin]

4 minutes ago, Datsuncog said:

My usual quick sweep around the other antique stalls seldom yields much, but Pugilistic Paddy happened to have these for a change:

Well knock me down with a feather.

Prices were, it has to be said, reassuringly expensive:

That's £15 on the Dinky Bedford CA in Ovaltine livery, £20 each on the grand Prix racers, £25 on the grey flatbed, £35 on the Coles crane, and £50 on the big Lesney K-8 Laing Prime Mover and trailer.

I'm not sure how much the Karrier outside broadcast van was, as there's signs everywhere saying DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING!! - and I didn't much fancy a brawl before breakfast.

He's clearly out of touch. At a swapmeet, where there is much competition,  these would all be around the £5 mark, max.

[Datsuncog]

A spin past the Irish Tat stall showed a sudden influx of more Matchbox and Hot Wheels:

Packin' 'em three deep in places.

Convoys were back - apparently they sell really well - but he was having a hard time getting any more Working Rigs.

Some UK Collection Matchbox had appeared but no more of the German stuff.

I asked Colin on the stall what the craic was with Matchbox and Mattel generally - he reckoned they're just a bit inconsistent, both with stock availability and pricing. He'd love to get more of the German Collection, but they're just not showing as available this week. Prices seem to go up and down too - pegged to international exchange rates? - so sometimes it's not worth his while ordering them as there'll be no margin.

But - they sell well, when he can get 'em.

Some more 1/43 Cararama S3 Land Rovers had arrived in:

Plus a Greenlight GMC Vandura in A-Team colours.

Tenner on that one.

Some 1/25(?) rally partworks were also new:

£30, though.

Colin also advised that he had a Whitebox Toyota Celica on order - 70s era, and road car not rally - so I'd be interested in seeing that.

Alan was still setting up the Eponymous Emporium, and the Charity Stall (now shrunk down from three stall units to two) had no diecast, or even much of interest.

So, time for a little bit of breakfast, and some photo editing...

[Datsuncog]

Suitably refreshed, I went for a final turn round the stalls, just in case anything else of interest had appeared while I was a-guzzling...

Market Blokey had decided to give some of the older repaint stuff a star billing on the main stall, but clearly no-one's told him yet that kiddy repaints aren't worth a widdly-wank, let alone a tenner.

There were, however, a number of useful manuals available detailing multiple ways to annoy your spouse.

But nothing else, really.

Charity Stall had nowt, unless you were after tinned peas...

They also had a fine* line of past-date pineapple mixers which resembled Thames Water river samples:

Mmm, yum.

And Alan's 50p Tray Of Dreams, sometimes worth holding out for, delivered little to tickle me this morning.

These weren't even as cheap as 50p.

The £6 Corgi Routemaster with the London 2012 Olympics branding was still available.

I was just hurrying on my way, when I noticed these carefully hidden right at the back of the stall, behind a pillar, for maximum invisibility:

Can't be seen to be attracting customers, can we?

But, if we're talking £6 for played-with, unboxed tat then I doubt these Lledo-era Vanguards commercials are going to be much below the £10 mark, and I'd guess probably rather above that...

Ah now.

Seems we're entering cloud-cuckoo land a bit with pricing, kids - but with rents and utilities going through the ceiling, is this just the way things are headed?

Strange times in Tatland.

[Split_Pin]

Crikey, bring back the fiver 1/76 buses!

[andrew e]

43 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

He's clearly out of touch. At a swapmeet, where there is much competition,  these would all be around the £5 mark, max.

Exactly a £5! That’s what I paid for a very good Coles crane:

 

[flat4alfa]

45 minutes ago, Datsuncog said:

£35 on the Coles crane, and £50 on the big Lesney K-8 Laing Prime Mover and trailer.

Barking.  Coles is missing its hook too.

Scammell price in nonsense.